Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;931831Has anyone ever done something like this?

I was thinking it would be really cool to generate characters that way, rolling them up through various stages of life and having the potential of them dying along the way.

I generate Dark Albion characters using their stats in a Mongoose Traveller career template. A backstory is also generated for the characters. Basically, I'm playing Dark Albion's setting using the Mongoose Traveller system.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;932044> downloads d20 Traveller
> opens up PDF
> wolf man on the cover

That is not what I expected from this game lol.

The Vargr. Ha!

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;932044> downloads d20 Traveller
> opens up PDF
> wolf man on the cover

That is not what I expected from this game lol.

It is a Vargr from the Third Imperium setting. One of the central conceits of the setting is that 300,000 years ago the ancient came to Earth, grab humans, and used them as servants. When the ancient disappeared this left humanity seeded on dozens of worlds.

In one case, a group of lupus were grabbed and genetically engineered into a bipedal sentient race. Like humanity, the proto-Vargr were left behind on a planet where they evolved and developed a space faring civilization.

They are noted for the dominance of Charisma of individual leaders in their culture. While it not total anarchy, Vargr society is far more fractured than human society. In short Vargr respond powerfully to a personal connection and relationship to a leader. The more removed the leader is from the Vargr the less loyalty they feel. Countering this is the social dynamics arising out their ancestral pack instincts which drive them to work together and to establish a place within the social hierarchy. Vargr space is divided into hundreds of polities and organizations doing their own thing.

Yes, there are Vargr (anthropomorphic dogs/wolves). There are also Anthropomorphic Lions (Aslans). The other aliens in the Traveller 3rd Imperium setting are pretty much either variant humans, or truly alien aliens (still all oxygen breathing, carbon based, but things like centauroids and radially symmetrical races).

From what I remember though, they just use the regular career path options.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;931831Has anyone ever done something like this?

I was thinking it would be really cool to generate characters that way, rolling them up through various stages of life and having the potential of them dying along the way.

Check out this forum: http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/

Years ago there was a member who made a fantasy version of Traveler called Wanderer.   Rules, wicked cool mock-up, etc.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;932044> downloads d20 Traveller
> opens up PDF
> wolf man on the cover

That is not what I expected from this game lol.

Just wait 'til you hear the concept album. This is my favorite track.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;931831Has anyone ever done something like this?

I was thinking it would be really cool to generate characters that way, rolling them up through various stages of life and having the potential of them dying along the way.

You pretty much can't die in the new Traveller variants.

Quote from: DavetheLost;931851Beyond the Wall is definitely worth a look. Attributes, skills, spells, life history all generated by means of life path tables. It just doesn't have the risk of characters dying.

I concur;).

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;931924Is it available anywhere?

Go to the site of Far Future Enterprises and buy (pretty much) the whole Traveller 20 line for $35 on one CD:D!

Quote from: AsenRG;932701You pretty much can't die in the new Traveller variants.

You can, by using the "Ironman" method of character generation in MgT. Then again, you couldn't die in character generation in any version of Traveller since the first 1977 one.

Quote from: jeff37923;932706You can, by using the "Ironman" method of character generation in MgT. Then again, you couldn't die in character generation in any version of Traveller since the first 1977 one.

Well, technically, you could die without the Ironman method. You could roll so badly on physical stuff and then roll so much damage by an accident or something that you'd lose enough Attribute points to get killed:).
That said, the odds for that are so low I don't think it has happened to me after rolling several dozens of characters. Yeah, I was playing with Traveller chargen, just because the chargen is fun;).

That said, if you want an Ironman variant for Beyond the wall, here's something to preserve the odds. Pick a number between 1 and 4, and when rolling on the Playbook you chose, if you only roll that number for the fifth time, your character dies, start anew:D!

Characters die in Mongoose Traveller CharGen just fine if players don't want to pay for healing.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;932732Characters die in Mongoose Traveller CharGen just fine if players don't want to pay for healing.

And here I'm reminded for Gronan's comment about "assuming people are smart enough to shit unassisted".

That's always struck me as a bit optimistic.

Some players don't want their characters to start out with medical debts. So they make a new character. Their Bishop character is left in a freezerio for the Referee to make use of later maybe.

Lifepath works for Traveller because the SF that inspired it often features grizzled protagonists and competency porn. A zero-to-hero game like D&D or WFRP — hell, especially WFRP — more or less implies that everything interesting about your chatacter is happening at the game table.

Though Beyond The Wall has a very neat, if minimalistic (compared to Traveller) lifepath-ish system.

And it seems like a simple matter to arrange for a random career pathway generation system for advanced WFRP characters. Roll starting career; apply perks; assign a random chance for each career exit to determine next career; repeat as often as desired and the resulting PC will eventually resemble the sort of character depicted in WFB hero miniatures rather than a WFRP PC.

Quote from: David Johansen;932830That's always struck me as a bit optimistic.

He does so, too:).

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;932841Some players don't want their characters to start out with medical debts. So they make a new character. Their Bishop character is left in a freezerio for the Referee to make use of later maybe.

Yes, I know some gamers are sore losers, that's part of what my previous comment referred to.

Quote from: The Butcher;932852Lifepath works for Traveller because the SF that inspired it often features grizzled protagonists and competency porn. A zero-to-hero game like D&D or WFRP — hell, especially WFRP — more or less implies that everything interesting about your chatacter is happening at the game table.

I don't find starting Traveller PCs even approaching the level of "competency porn".

Quote from: AsenRG;932869Yes, I know some gamers are sore losers, that's part of what my previous comment referred to.

I didn't know what your comment was referring to. But that would suck, having sore losers at a game table. I've been lucky so far.